And now the commissioner has opened himself up to hypocrisy sure to come, for clearly the Vick suspension will serve as precedent in perpetuity for every future player infraction. Otherwise, Goodell will look small and vindictive, very much as he does today
Each day, the cyclist who’s in the lead overall and gets awarded the yellow jersey for that day also gets a lion stuffed animal as part of his prize. Why? The sponsor of the yellow jersey is the French bank, Credit Lyonnaise. Get it? Lyonnaise - lion
I'm not made of goldThought I told you soWith your hopes so highI'll tell you one more timeYou'll hear me if you tryI could never be that for youI could never be that for youI could never take your cloudy skies and make them blueYou keep on telling me I light your dayYou're hanging on to every word I sayI could never be that for you, that for you
During the War on Terrorism, the Bush administration gave the Pakistani allies money so that this country could help in the war, especially since this US-friendly country bordered Afghanistan. The government did not use this money to fight the Taliban, which actually originated in northwestern Pakistan in the early 1990s. Instead of retooling it’s military in order to fight a difficult counter-insurgency war against the Taliban, the Pakistani military is suspected to have beefed up it’s conventional military to protect itself from India. Some argued that fighting the Taliban is not in Pakistan’s interests. As the BBC reported:
There have been a lot of questions raised about the commitment of the Pakistan's security establishment. In particular, the role of the country's powerful but shadowy Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency has been the subject of much debate.
Most of it is focused on the agency's relationship with the Taliban. The Taliban were very much a creation of the ISI as part of the army's doctrine of 'strategic depth'.
This doctrine saw Afghanistan as a friendly satellite that would give Pakistani forces geographic strategic depth in case of war with its perennial rival India and its much more powerful military.
The army also saw the Taliban as an instrument in Pakistan becoming a player in the new great game for energy resources in Central Asia. While post 9/11, the country ostensibly threw in its lot with the US, many believe the army and the ISI continue to secretly support the Taliban.
While all Pakistani authorities deny this on the record, many senior security personnel have admitted some support to the Taliban.
They point to the growing influence of India in Afghanistan, and say Pakistan cannot allow this 'encirclement' as it directly imparts on its national security.
Earlier this year in April, the Taliban broke a truce with Pakistan and started controlling sections of northwestern Pakistan, specifically in the Swat Valley. These forces got within 60 miles of Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital.
Map of Northern Pakistan from BBC showing Taliban-controlled areas
Fareed Zakaria argued on CNN that Pakistan should be worried about the Taliban’s influence in the country:
Well, the real core of this struggle has to be fought by the Pakistani army. They would need to fight a civil war against these militants to protect their own country, something they are loath to do. They have preferred the "phantom" war against India, a simple old-fashioned deployment that they understand. Insurgencies are tough, and they are trying to avoid dealing with it. But they need to understand, this is the existential threat to their country. India is not trying to capture Punjab, the Taliban is.
This week I ran across an article from the New York Times with more news from Pakistan. Obama has escalated the fighting in southern Afghanistan in order to destroy the Taliban and finish the war there. However, Pakistan is not happy about Obama’s war:
Pakistan is objecting to expanded American combat operations in neighboring Afghanistan, creating new fissures in the alliance with Washington at a critical juncture when thousands of new American forces are arriving in the region
Pakistani officials have told the Obama administration that the Marines fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan will force militants across the border into Pakistan, with the potential to further inflame the troubled province of Baluchistan, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.
Pakistan does not have enough troops to deploy to Baluchistan to take on the Taliban without denuding its border with its archenemy, India, the officials said. Dialogue with the Taliban, not more fighting, is in Pakistan’s national interest, they said.
The Pakistani account made clear that even as the United States recommits troops and other resources to take on a growing Taliban threat, Pakistani officials still consider India their top priority and the Taliban militants a problem that can be negotiated. In the long term, the Taliban in Afghanistan may even remain potential allies for Pakistan, as they were in the past, once the United States leaves.
Top Political Cartoon by Adam Zyglis from The Buffalo News on 5/7/09
Middle Political Cartoon by Paresh Nath from the Khaleej Times (UAE) on 5/12/09
Bottom Political Cartoon ibid. on 3/3/09
peregrinate |ˈperigrəˌnāt|verb [ intrans. ] archaic or humoroustravel or wander around from place to place.DERIVATIVESperegrination |ˌperigrəˈnā sh ən| |ˈpɛrəgrəˈneɪʃən| nounperegrinator |-ˌnātər| |ˈpɛrəgrəˈneɪdər| nounORIGIN late 16th cent.: from Latin peregrinat- ‘traveled abroad,’ from the verb peregrinari, from peregrinus ‘foreign, traveling.’
